The development of microfluidic technologies by the inventors and their co-workers has provided a fundamental paradigm shift in how artificial biological and chemical processes are performed. In particular, the inventors and their co-workers have provided microfluidic systems which dramatically increase throughput for biological and chemical methods, as well as greatly reducing reagent costs for the methods. In these microfluidic systems, small volumes of fluid (e.g., on the order of a few nanoliters to a few microliters) are moved through microchannels (e.g., in glass or polymer microfluidic devices) by electrokinetic or pressure-based mechanisms. Fluids can be mixed, and the results of the mixing experiments determined by monitoring a detectable signal from products of the mixing experiments.
Complete integrated systems with fluid handling, signal detection, sample storage and sample accessing are available. For example, Parce et al. “High Throughput Screening Assay Systems in Microscale Fluidic Devices” WO 98/00231 and Knapp et al. “Closed Loop Biochemical Analyzers” (WO 98/45481; PCT/US98/06723) provide pioneering technology for the integration of microfluidics and sample selection and manipulation. For example, in WO 98/45481, microfluidic apparatus, methods and integrated systems are provided for performing a large number of iterative, successive, or parallel fluid manipulations. For example, integrated sequencing systems, apparatus and methods are provided for sequencing nucleic acids (as well as for many other fluidic operations, e.g., those benefiting from automation of iterative fluid manipulation). This ability to iteratively sequence a large nucleic acid (or a large number of nucleic acids) provides for increased rates of sequencing, as well as lower sequencing reagent costs. Applications to compound screening, enzyme kinetic determination, nucleic acid hybridization kinetics and many other processes are also described by Knapp et al.
As an alternative to microfluidic approaches, small scale array based technologies can also increase throughput of screening, sequencing, and other chemical and biological methods, providing robust chemistries for a variety of screening, sequencing and other applications. Fixed solid-phase arrays of nucleic acids, proteins, and other chemicals have been developed by a number of investigators. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,231, to Drmanac et al. and, e.g., in Drmanac et al. (1989) Genomics 4:114-128 describe sequencing by hybridization to arrays of oligonucleotides. Many other applications of array-based technologies are commercially available from e.g., Affymetrix, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), Hyseq Technologies, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and others. Example applications of array technologies are described e.g., in Fodor (1997) “Genes, Chips and the Human Genome” FASEB Journal. 11:121-121; Fodor (1997) “Massively Parallel Genomics” Science. 277:393-395; Chee et al. (1996) “Accessing Genetic Information with High-Density DNA Arrays” Science 274:610-614; and Drmanac et al. (1998) “Accurate sequencing by hybridization for DNA diagnostics and individual genomics.” Nature Biotechnology 16: 54-58.
The present invention is a pioneering invention in the field of microfluidics and mobile array technologies, coupling the fluid handling capabilities of microfluidic systems with the robust chemistries available through array technologies (e.g., solid phase chemistries) to facilitate laboratory and industrial processes. Many applications and variations will be apparent upon complete review of this disclosure.